Amino Acid Complexes of Zirconium in a Carbon Composite for the Efficient Removal of Fluoride Ions from Water

Efrén González-Aguiñaga, José Antonio Pérez-Tavares, Rita Patakfalvi, Tamás Szabó, Erzsébet Illés, Héctor Pérez Ladrón de Guevara, Pablo Eduardo Cardoso-Avila, Jesús Castañeda-Contreras and Quetzalcoatl Enrique Saavedra Arroyo
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Efrén González-Aguiñaga: Centro Universitario de los Lagos, Universidad de Guadalajara, Lagos de Moreno 47460, Jalisco, Mexico
José Antonio Pérez-Tavares: Centro Universitario de los Lagos, Universidad de Guadalajara, Lagos de Moreno 47460, Jalisco, Mexico
Rita Patakfalvi: Centro Universitario de los Lagos, Universidad de Guadalajara, Lagos de Moreno 47460, Jalisco, Mexico
Tamás Szabó: Department of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Szeged, Rerrich Béla tér 1, 6720 Szeged, Hungary
Erzsébet Illés: Department of Food Engineering, University of Szeged, 6720 Szeged, Hungary
Héctor Pérez Ladrón de Guevara: Centro Universitario de los Lagos, Universidad de Guadalajara, Lagos de Moreno 47460, Jalisco, Mexico
Pablo Eduardo Cardoso-Avila: Centro de Investigaciones en Óptica A.C., León 37150, Guanajuato, Mexico
Jesús Castañeda-Contreras: Centro Universitario de los Lagos, Universidad de Guadalajara, Lagos de Moreno 47460, Jalisco, Mexico
Quetzalcoatl Enrique Saavedra Arroyo: Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Irapuato, Irapuato 36821, Guanajuato, Mexico

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 6, 1-17

Abstract: Amino acid complexes of zirconia represent an entirely new class of materials that were synthesized and studied for the first time for the decontamination of fluoride ion containing aqueous solutions. Glutamic and aspartic acid complexes of zirconia assembled with thin carbon (stacked graphene oxide) platelets deriving from graphite oxide (GO) were synthesized by a two-step method to prepare adsorbents. The characterization of the complexes was carried out using infrared spectroscopy to determine the functional groups and the types of interaction between the composites and fluoride ions. To reveal the mechanisms and extent of adsorption, two types of batch adsorption measurements were performed: (i) varying equilibrium fluoride ion concentrations to construct adsorption isotherms at pH = 7 in the absence of added electrolytes and (ii) using fixed initial fluoride ion concentrations (10 mg/L) with a variation of either the pH or the concentration of a series of salts that potentially interfere with adsorption. The experimental adsorption isotherms were fitted by three different theoretical isotherm equations, and they are described most appropriately by the two-site Langmuir model for both adsorbents. The adsorption capacities of Zr-glutamic acid-graphite oxide and Zr-aspartic acid-graphite oxide are 105.3 and 101.0 mg/g, respectively. We found that two distinct binding modes are combined in the Zr-amino acid complexes: at low solution concentrations, F − ions are preferentially adsorbed by coordinating to the surface Zr species up to a capacity of ca. 10 mg/g. At higher concentrations, however, large amounts of fluoride ions may undergo anion exchange processes and physisorption may occur on the positively charged ammonium moieties of the interfacially bound amino acid molecules. The high adsorption capacity and affinity of the studied dicarboxylate-type amino acids demonstrate that amino acid complexes of zirconia are highly variable materials for the safe and efficient capture of strong Lewis base-type ions such as fluoride.

Keywords: fluoride adsorption; zirconium complex; amino acid; graphite oxide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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